Waking to the World
by Rhirhirhi
Summary: When Luffy and Ace get into a fight with a group of bandits they find out about an illegal slave trade taking place in their part of the ocean. Soon they are not only caught up in the illicit dealings of their home island but are also forced to question the very values of their world they've grown up in. Set after Sabo (though he will be mentioned).
1. The start of it all

Hi everyone! I've decided to do a One Piece story about Ace and Luffy. I hope you enjoy it :)

* * *

A stag beetle came to rest in the rotting leaves on the forest floor. It crawled among the leaves, pausing every now and then when it found something suitable to eat. The stag beetle then climbed to the top of a log, unfolding its wings. With a soft buzzing sound it lifted, beginning its upwards assent. Up, through the branches into the canopy high above – or at least it would have if at that very moment a pair of hands had not clasped around it, trapping it in a small cave like cage.

"Gottcha!" exclaimed a young boy as he got to his feet after diving for the large bug. "Thought you got away from me this time hey?" The boy carefully opened his hands a fraction so as not to let the bug escape "Ohh!" He said excitedly "You're an awesome stag beetle! I bet you'd be good in a beetle race – I'll show you how it's done." With that the boy plonked himself down on the grass and allowed the stag beetle to wonder along a nearby log – never letting the creature get far before recapturing it.

The boy was just showing his beetle the finer points of beetle racing when a voice rang out through the trees "Luffy!" The boy looked up peering through the trees in the direction he'd heard his name being shouted.

"I bet that's Ace," Luffy spoke to the stag beetle, holding it at eye level "He's my older brother. I bet he'll be really excited to see you!" He stood, holding the squirming beetle above his head. "Hey Ace! Over here! You'll never guess what I've found!"

"I can guess that it has nothing to do with what you're meant to be doing" came Ace's voice as he made his way through the trees.

"It's this" Luffy said, proudly displaying the stag beetle to his older brother.

"Another stag beetle – really?" Ace eyed the beetle uninterestedly.

"Yep! It's going to be a racing beetle – I've already named it and everything!"

"You've named it?" Ace asked drily "Ok, let me see... what was it you've named every stag beetle you've ever caught? Oh yes – 'Staggie,'"

"Nope not this time" Luffy grinned.

"Really?" Ace asked in some surprise "But you always call them Staggie."

"Well that's cause they were all boys – this one's a girl, so her name is 'Stagetta,'"

Ace rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore Luffy's unique sense of logic. Moving on to the actual reason they were here he questioned "I don't suppose you actually managed to find one of the Woodland Bears?"

"Nope." Luffy answered simply.

"Ok, then what exactly are you planning to eat for lunch – remember we also need to take something back for Dadan and the other idiots – they might be able to get a normal bear for themselves, but Woodland Bears aren't exactly the easiest of catches," Ace paused, watching as the beetle crawled along Luffy's arm "Unless you were thinking of taking that thing back for everyone," he teased.

"No way," Luffy objected "Stagetta's my pet, and she's going to get real good at racing" he looked solemnly at the beetle for a moment "I wish she was bigger though, I bet she'd taste real good – bigger things always taste better."

Ace shook his head "Luffy, It's a bug. I don't think it'll ever taste good – no matter how big it -" Ace stopped short as the breaking of branches sounded from near-by. Ace and Luffy barely had time to exchange glances before a colossal black bear emerged from the trees, its angry red eyes spying the two boys.

"Oh well," commented Ace springing backwards "looks like we won't have to waste time looking for it."

"It sure looks tasty," grinned Luffy – clearly overlooking the bear's manky looking fur. The bear growled, turning its attention on Luffy. Using his rubber abilities Luffy reached out for an overhanging branch, swinging himself out of harm's way. "Stagetta!" He cried as he lost hold of the stag beetle, watching as it flew up towards the freedom of the canopy.

"Luffy! Would you pay attention!" raged Ace while swiftly whacking the bear with his bo staff, "This is a Woodland Bear – you could easily become its lunch rather than the other way round if you keep goofing off like that!"

"Right" affirmed Luffy "I'm gonna kick that bastard's ass!" he shouted as he launched himself from the tree branches "Gomu-gomu no Pistol!"

* * *

The sizzling meat was making Luffy's stomach growl. "Come on Ace," he whined "It must be nearly ready!"

"If you keep asking Luffy, it'll take even longer."

"Waa! Ok, I won't ask again!" Luffy took a seat on a boulder at the base of a small rocky cliff. Grabbing a few handfuls of pebbles he spent the next few minutes tossing them into a nearby river watching as they disappeared beneath the surface with a small plonk. _Well better it than me_ Luffy thought as a particularly large rock disappeared rapidly below the surface with a satisfying splash. Retaking his seat Luffy continued to watch Ace cook the meat. "So is it nearly ready now?"

Ace looked over from the bonfire they had built to cook the large beast "I'm not going to answer you again Luffy. I just told you that it's nearly done." He prodded the bear meet with a stick "It'll be ready real soon, then we can eat what we want and take what's left back to Dadan and the rest. That should keep the shitty old hag happy for a while," he paused, considering what else needed to be done "The problem with this," he said more to himself that Luffy "is that we can't really get any money out of this – and we'll need that for supplies to last us through winter, and that's coming up fast. We'll eat all the meat – so no money there, and while the meat is good, Woodland Bear skin is notoriously crap, both in appearance and quality. After that there's really only bones, which of course no one buys. What we need," he continued turning the cooking bear meat as he spoke "is to get one of the crocs from the river – they're always good both food and cash. I reckon that the two of us are probably up to taking down the King Croc now. It might be a bit difficult but I reckon we can do it. What do you reckon Luffy?"

"Is the food ready yet?" came a whiny reply. "Whaa!" Luffy cried as he was sent flying off his temporary seat by the rock Ace sent his way in response.

"Geeze you're impatient," Ace commented as he hacked off a piece of meat and chucked it Luffy's way "I don't envy your ship's future cook" he took some meat for himself as Luffy laughed, disregarding his bo staff in favour of the bear meat.

Ace was near finishing his lunch when he heard something within the forest. Listening carefully to the telltale signs of clumsy footsteps and the breaking of branches it was clear that whatever was coming towards them was not native to the jungle.

"Luffy, I think we've got company" Ace stated as the footsteps, now accompanied by voices came closer to the clearing.

Looking through the trees Luffy caught glimpses of the men approaching. "Looks like there was something here after all," spoke a large man pushing his way through a bush and into the clearing "thought I could smell something cookin'".

"Yeah, it sure looks good" spoke a ratty looking man. "'Make a decent lunch – that's for sure. And they've got a fire going; it'll be nice to warm up a bit." This comment was met with murmurs of agreement as another five men made their way into the clearing.

"Ok boys," said the large man "I've got a deal for the two of you. That meat looks pretty good, give it to us without making a scene and I guarantee my men and I won't hurt you. I mean," the man looked at the large mass of bear meat "That's a lot of meat and it's not like a pair of kids like you are actually going to appreciate it."

"Yeah, it's pretty good," said Ace as he and Luffy placed themselves in between the meat and the newcomers "And I hope you've had a good look at it because that's all you're gonna get!"

"Yeah, we caught this and you're not getting any" Luffy contributed.

This earned a round of laughter from the bandits. "Do you really expect us to believe that a pair of brats managed to take down a Mountain Bear?" laughed the ratty bandit "I doubt that. I bet you found it already dead – or maybe you stole it from someone."

"Yeah, that'll be it," agreed the large bandit "Well I don't really like the idea of kids stealing. How about we teach these brats what it feels like to have something stolen off them?" This was met with shouts of approval from the other bandits.

"We did catch it, and we're not giving any to you!" Luffy argued before sticking out his tongue and adding "Idiots!"

"Oh yes," began the large man "and how are you, a simple pair of children going to stop us mountain bandits from taking what we want?"

"By kicking your asses" Luffy replied raising his fists.

"Pffff" scoffed the ratty bandit, apparently missing the irony between what Luffy had said the way the boy was actually readying himself for the impending fight, "You think you could do that hey? Didn't ya hear? We're bandits, our boss Kutsu even has his own bounty," he added indicating towards the large man.

"Does it look like we care about a stupid bounty?" Ace mocked.

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, little runt," jeered Rat Face preparing his katana while moving swiftly towards Ace. "You need to learn to respect your elders"

Ace smoothly side-stepped the oncoming blade, quickly twisting around to deliver a well placed blow to the bandits head with his bo staff. "And you," Ace replied to his now unconscious opponent "need to learn to chose your own opponents better."

"Yay! Go Ace!" Luffy happily cheered for his brother as Rat Face's friends looked on in disbelief.

The leader of the bandits stiffened upon hearing the name. "Ace – _that_ Ace? Well he did just take down one of my men, and then there's the kid with the straw hat," he muttered to himself.

"Boss, the kid just said 'Ace', and he's wearing a straw hat," stated one of the bandits "they must be the infamous 'Forest Brats'"

"I've heard about them," another commented "I heard they're much stronger than the average brat. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to underestimate them."

"I wonder if they actually did take down the bear," commented the bandit near the back.

"Men!" said Kutsu "Are you really telling me you're afraid of a pair of brats just 'cause you've heard a few stories? You're embarrassing the name of 'mountain bandit' acting afraid of a simple pair of children, have you forgotten we outnumber them?" Kutsu turned to address Ace and Luffy – both of whom were still guarding their meat. "Being a little stronger than average brats won't help you this time. Like my men said I've got a pretty good bounty." Kutsu bragged "You might find yourselves a little intimidated knowing this – I wouldn't blame you, in all the East Blue it is I-"

"Ace, I'm bored" Luffy stated with a stifled yawn.

"Oi don't get bored while I'm telling you how great a bandit I am, little shit!" Kutsu raged.

"If I want to get bored, then I'm gonna get bored." Luffy retaliated before adding "And I hate mountain bandits – so I'm not going to give you a single bite of our meat!"

"Well now" said Kutsu crossing his arms and looking smugly at the other bandits "I was thinking we'd just take the meat and leave, but ya know? I'm starting to think we should let the kids in on our, *Ahem* other business." This comment was met with calls of approval from his accomplices.

"Oh yeah," Ace said cautiously, bo staff held tight in front of him should he need it "and what would this business be?"

"Oh I guess you could call it some kind of 'exchange' or 'trade' even. You see this world is a big place. And when you get big places you also get jobs that need doing. Now some of these jobs people don't mind doing-"

"Like running a cake shop," one of the bandits randomly interrupted.

"Yes, like running a cake sho-" Kutsu began before: "Would you shut up Bill, I'm trying to be serious here! Anyways some of these jobs people don't mind doing, while other jobs – such as jobs that have elements that are revolting, dangerous or vulgar, well, to be honest there's not a lot of people who would willingly do that. And that's where we come in. You see what happens is my friends here and I look for 'candidates' that are capable of fulfilling such roles. When we find such candidates we take them to the business partners we have and 'exchange' the candidate for money. It's a pretty sweet deal."

"I think these 'candidates' of yours would think different," Ace objected.

"Well," justified Kutsu "what you have to understand is that in the world of business, whenever any decision is made someone is going to be unhappy about it. But in this case I'm happy, our business partner's happy and the purchaser is happy – really it's only the candidate that's not. That's only one out of the four people involved that's unhappy and that's good enough for me."

"Hmmm," Luffy pondered this for a moment, a light frown on his brow "very mysterious."

Now it was Kutsu's turn to frown "I don't think there's anything mysterious about it, I explained it clearly. We find a person to do some other guy's dirty work and we trade that person for money. Pretty simple really"

Luffy stood there with a blank expression, a solitary finger one nostril "So what you're saying is..." he began.

"Luffy, they're talking about human trafficking!" Ace explained in exasperation.

Luffy gasped "What, like the horses and carriages they have in the city but having humans instead!?"

Ace sighed "Not that kind of traffic dumbass – their talking about the slave trade."

"Ohhh, I see now," Luffy thumped his fist down on his open palm. "Whaa! Ace! These guys are bad guys!"

"You don't say," Ace commented drily.

Kutsu chuckled "Well, now that it seems you've finally caught onto the situation it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that we'll now be taking you as candidates, considering how uncooperative you were before." Kutsu withdrew a sword a manic grin spreading across his face. "Now are we going to do this the easy way, or the fun way."

"I'm presuming the fun way involves us beating up you guys?" Ace commented casually swinging his bo staff.

Kutsu laughed "Are you sure about that?" he questioned picking up Luffy's discarded bo staff "Only one of you has a weapon," he tossed the staff into the nearby river.

"Damn it Luffy!" Ace cursed "I've told you before not to leave that kind of stuff lying around. This is why!"

"Don't worry," Luffy reasoned "I've been training a lot lately. I think I can take these idiots on even without a weapon."

Upon hearing this, the bandits again laughed out loud. "Men," Kutsu ordered "I think it's about time these brats were given a reality check." As one the bandits yelled, lunging forward pulling out their weapons.

Luffy dodged as the first man leaped towards him. "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" he shouted aiming at the bandit. His fist sailed forward, clearly missing the man and instead implanting itself in the trunk of a large tree.

"Whaa!" cried the bandit "The rumours are true, the straw hat kid really can stretch!"

"He's clearly a Devil Fruit user," commented Kutsu "Well come on men, don't let that effect you! He may be a Fruit user, but he's still a kid."

Upon hearing this, the two bandits near Luffy drew nearer to attack.

"Damn!" Luffy cursed, trying to free his hand "It's stuck!" He pulled back further, leaning back on his heels. "Oh oh," he began as his feet began to lose their grip.

"I think you need to work on your aim," began one of the bandits while Luffy continued to pull at his arm. "It's not much good if you can't even hit-" the man's words were cut short as Luffy lost his footing and suddenly went flying back towards his arm, smashing into the two bandits in front of him

"Shishishi" Luffy laughed, looking at the two men he'd knocked out "That worked well. Just as I planned!"

"As if," Ace scoffed knocking down his final opponent – a man with a belt load of small knives. Ace turned to his brother "that's what we call 'luck' dumbass."

"Something you don't seem to have much of" said the knife wielding man suddenly getting to his knees while hurtling a number of the small knives at Ace, pinning him to the tree.

"You bastard!" Luffy yelled at the knifed man sending his fist ploughing into the man's face. Luffy then turned his attention to his brother – not caring that he had managed an accurately aimed blow. "Ace!"

"Don't worry Luffy" Ace responded "They've mainly missed me – just a little scratch here and there. It's just my clothes pinning me down. If I wasn't wearing these stupid long sleeves there'd be no problem. Give me a minute and I'll be fine," he struggled against the knives holding him to the tree. "Damn – they're really stuck far in," he muttered under his breath.

"Too bad you don't have a minute" Kutsu said brandishing his katana. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that you've taken down my men – you two didn't become known as the Forest Brats for nothing. Now it looks like it's turned into a one on one fight," Kutsu turned his attention from Ace to Luffy in front of him. "But there's no way you can take me down kid. You heard what my boys said earlier. I've got a bounty. But what they didn't mention is that the price on my head is 9 million bellies. That's three times the average bounty in these waters," he boasted.

"Oi! Luffy!" Ace shouted upon hearing this "Get out of here, now's not the time fighting without a weapon. This guy will be strong!" he continued to tug at the knives restraining him.

"What, and leave you behind again?" Luffy questioned "I don't think so!" Luffy turned to face Bob "And you. I don't care how big your bounty is, I'm still gonna kick your ass. Idio-" Luffy was forced to stop mid insult, dodging the katana Kutsu had swung swiftly in his direction.

"Whoo!" Luffy exclaimed now jumping over the swords blade as Kutsu made another attack. "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" Luffy exclaimed sending his attack towards Kutsu. It missed him by about half a meter "Damn it!" Luffy exclaimed as Kutsu took the opportunity to attack while Luffy's arm was still extended.

"Too bad you can't aim for crap." Kutsu taunted raising his swords to attack the unguarded boy. Luffy quickly reached up to the branches high above, propelling himself upwards though not quickly enough. Swinging his sword blindly in Luffy's direction Kutsu managed to cut a shallow yet long cut in Luffy's leg.

"Ouch!" yelled Luffy as he swung himself into the tree branches, taking a moment to examine his wound.

"Oh, is the little brat scared?" Luffy looked down below to where Kutsu was taunting him near the boulders. _He's difficult _Luffy acknowledged _If only I was a little stronger I could defeat him no problem. _Luffy looked down at Kutsu _If I want to beat him I need some kind of plan _Luffy thought as Kutsu shouted something that sounded like "Stop avoiding me!" Luffy grinned – plan formulating in his mind. _Yes!_

Luffy stood, ignoring the small sting in his leg – he'd had worse. "Oi Brat," Kutsu was saying "If I have to come up there..."

"Gomu Gomu no" Luffy began, concentrating hard on his target "Pistol!" his fist came shooting outwards, barley missing Kutsu instead sailing straight into the pile of rocks.

"Ha idiot!" Laughed Kutsu "You missed again! And this time you've gotten yourself stuck in rock,"

"Oh, I've missed have I?" Luffy grinned mischievously, leaning back on his arm "Who said I was aiming for you?" Letting the tension in his feet go Luffy let his self rocket forward "Gomu Gomu no... ummmm..." Luffy considered what to call the attack for a moment as he hurtled through the air towards the Kutsu "Rocket!" he decided on as he crashed into Kutsu, hurtling them both into the rocky outcrop. There was a sound as a few pebbles fell down around Luffy quickly proceeding by the sounds of much larger rocks making their way downwards. "Yes!" Luffy said to Kutsu next to him "My plan worked perfectly, now you're going to be buried by a pile of rocks,"

"I hope you realise you're gonna get buried too" Kutsu sneered quickly scuffling to his feet to avoid the rocks. "Wait," he quickly looked at the stunned look on the boys face "You mean you didn't?! Idiot!" he remarked in disbelief as he, now accompanied by Luffy dogged boulders.

Luffy swiftly made his way out of range of the falling rocks, tripping over a smaller rock Luffy fell over, lying in the grass as the last of the smaller rocks and pebbles fell around him.

"Luffy!" called Ace running over after finally managing to free himself "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" Luffy stated starting to get to his feet "Opps," he looked down at his foot, now obscured from sight by the large rook that was sitting on it. He tugged his leg for a few moments before his foot came loose with a satisfying 'pop'. "I don't think my sandal is though," Luffy commented as his crushed sandal fell off his undamaged foot.

"So you managed to get him then," Ace commented indicating towards the unconscious Kutsu partially covered by rocky debris "a guy with a bounty – and you managed to deal with him alone. Looks like you've gotten a little stronger," Ace looked impressed.

"Yep – sure have," Luffy grinned confidently "before long I'll be kicking your ass!"

"I wouldn't count on that dumbass," Ace smirked leading the way back to the remaining bear meat. "Wait," he paused listening to the unmistakable sounds of more people approaching.

"And what have you two little brats got up to this time?"

Ace and Luffy relaxed upon seeing the large figure of their care taker making her way into the clearing.

"Oh, it's you Dadan" Ace said indifferently "We were just teaching a bunch of idiots not to mess with us."

"Or our food," Luffy contributed.

"Is that so?" questioned another figure arriving behind noting the unconscious Kutsu on the ground "It would seem you came across someone my men have been interested in meeting,"

Ace and Luffy looked on at the new comer with some surprise.

"Oh no!" Luffy exclaimed "Gramps, what are you doing here?!"

"I told you two this morning that Garp would be coming today" Dadan responded.

"I thought it was just some kind of sick joke when you said Gramps was coming!" Ace responded.

"Come now boys," Garp said rolling up his sleeves "shouldn't children be happy to receive a visit from their well loved Grandfather?" he ended this question sending his 'beloved' grandsons flying with his large fists.

"Define 'well loved'" Ace grumbled under his breath.

"You've done a pretty good job here by the looks of things boys," Garp admitted looking at the unconscious bandits "The marines have been looking for this particular group of bandits for some time now – specifically their leader Kutsu."

"I got him" Luffy admitted proudly getting back to his feet "I made a landslide that nearly squashed both of us! It was fu-"

Garp turned to face his grandsons "Look boys" he interrupted "I know it's useless to tell the two of you stay out of trouble because we all know that you get into some sort of trouble on a daily basis – but I am going to ask you to at least try to be a little cautious. There are some things going on around here that you should know about."

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I have the whole story planned fairly in depth, so you don't have to worry about me abandoning the story because I don't know what to do with the story - so that's good, I know I don't like reading a story I find interesting only to find its been abandoned so I wont do that to you guys :)

Oh yes: I am Australian so I could have had Luffy use the word 'thong' instead of 'sandal' but seeing as the rest of the world strangely thinks thongs belong on a woman's butt instead of on anyone's feet I decided 'sandal' might be more appropriate ;P

Anyways - I spent a long time working on this so reviews would be appreciated.


	2. Meeting Marines

Garp turned to face his grandsons "Look boys," he began "I know it's useless to tell the two of you stay out of trouble because we all know that you get into some sort of trouble on a daily basis – but I am going to ask you to at least try to be a little cautious. There are some things going on around here that you should know about."

Ace and Luffy watched as their grandfather glanced over at the six restrained bandits before taking a seat on the grass before them. "Now what you two need to understand is that," began Garp "is that...umm..."

Ace waited for his grandfather to recover his train of thought – this wait grew longer until:

"Don't fall asleep when you're about to tell us something!" raged Ace.

"Hmm!" Garp woke as suddenly as he had fallen asleep "Oh yes, I was out here – what were you saying Luffy?"

"What were _you_ going to say?" Luffy questioned. "You can't just say you need to tell us something and then go to sleep and forget all about it."

"Just wait a moment," commented Garp "you're gonna need to learn to be a bit more patient if you want to become marines someday. The bandits you met today," he continued before any comment could be made about the implied expectations "are part of a larger underground organisation that has recently come to the attention of the marines."

"Oh, this guy?" interrupted Dadan upon closer inspection of the unconscious bandit leader. "He's Kutsu, head of the Kutsu bandits who patrol the forest on the other side of the Grey Terminal. And his second in command, ummm Ratchet, I think his name is – unfortunate name for someone of his appearance." Dadan said nodding towards the rat faced bandit.

"What were these guys doing in our territory?"

"Ah yes, well I'm getting to that," Garp continued "the marines have recently received Intel that the Bandit group lead by Kutsu of Dawn Island were getting involved in some illegal activities."

"Woah, bandits involved in illegal activities," commented Ace sarcastically "who've guessed?"

"What I mean," Garp continued, ignoring his elder grandson who was now nursing a large bump on his head "is that in recent months similar cases of this particular activity have been occurring all over the East Blue – that is, an organisation has been started that involves people being kidnapped from their home islands and illegally being sold as slaves."

"Wait," began Ace, "What do you mean by '_illegally_ selling them as sla-"

"Ahh!" Garp interrupted "that reminds me, I'd better call my guys or they won't know to meet me here."

"Hey Dadan, I know you're more than happy to have me at your place, so you probably wouldn't mind having a few of my men come over to pick up this lot?"

"Are you crazy Garp!" began Dadan "You must be delusional to think I'm happy to have you at my house!" Dadan stopped and took a breath before continuing in a politer manner as if trying keep Garp from getting angry "What I mean Garp-san, is that _you_ might be able to overlook the dealings of my men – but other marines... well, they're not exactly like you. I don't want other marines being aware of where my family live."

"Fine, fine. If it bothers you that much I'll just call my men and have them come here instead." Garp said pulling a small snail-like object from his pocket.

"Cool toy Gramps!" Luffy stated.

"This isn't a toy," Garp responded "it's called a Den-Den Mushi, they're devices that allow people to communicate over long distances. This is a small Den-Den Mushi, the marines have only recently developed the technology to make these small ones, so their pretty rare at the moment, but I reckon by the time you two boys are older they'll be pretty wide spread."

"Hmmm, very mysterious." Luffy said as Garp dialled the number.

Luffy watched the small snail wake from its slumber as the person on the other end of the line picked up the receiver "Hello?" said the marine through the mimicking snail.

"Good afternoon Akaname. This is your Vice Admiral speaking," Garp responded into his own receiver "Monkey D Garp!" he added somewhat unnecessarily.

"Ahh! Sir it's you!" Akaname exclaimed through the equally relieved snail. "Where did you go? One minute you're on the beach lecturing the new recruits about the importance of being responsible and not abandoning duties, next thing we know you've disappeared!"

"I felt like going for a walk," Garp said simply.

"We were half way through a meeting!" Akaname sighed in exasperation "Ok, I'm guessing that since you actually called you have something to say?"

Garp went on to explain how the bandits had been captured. "I'll need a few men to-"

"Hey Gramps!" interrupted Luffy, jumping up and down to have a closer look at the snail "That's so cool! Can I have a go?"

"No." said Garp "These Den Den Mushi's are too cool for-"

"Hey, who's that?" Akaname asked through the transmunder snail, "Is that one of your grandsons that got the bandits? Pretty impressive, put him on."

"Fine," Garp agreed passing the Den Den Mushi to Luffy. "All you do is speak into the receiver – yeah that's the way,"

"Hello?" said Luffy, testing the snail.

"Hello," came Akaname 's reply "and who would this be?"

"This is Monkey D. Luffy," the boy answered, gaining confidence in using the device "and I'm going to be king of the pi-"

WHACK! Garp slammed his fist down on his younger grandson.

"Oi!" called Ace jumping up to assist his younger brother "Don't just whack him shitty old man!"

"Bwahaha," Garp laughed into the snail ignoring Ace's comment. "You'll have to excuse my grandson for now, he just... went for a swim."

"What that he was saying?" Akaname questioned "It almost sounded like he was going to say something about pirates,"

"Bwahahahah!" Garp let out a quite loud and over the top laugh "That's some imagination you have their Akaname. What Luffy was going to say is that he wants to become king of the ...umm... Pie makers!"

"Pie makers?"

"Yeah, that. He's also really excited about becoming a marine one day," Garp added.

"Oh really," came Akaname 's slightly sceptical reply before; "Sir, didn't you tell me that Luffy's a fruit user?"

"Oh crap that's right!" said Garp, "Ummm, I meant he's going for a swing, among the tree branches – far away from the water."

"Ok, whatever," replied the thoroughly unconvinced Akaname "where was it you said you were again, I'll send over some men to help bring in the bandits.

Garp continued to speak with the marine officer for a while longer before repositioning the receiver and returning the Den-Den Mushi to his pocket.

"They'll be here soon," Garp informed the others present.

"If that's the case I think I'll be on my way," Dadan got to her feet and turned in the general direction of the hideout. "Come over later if you must Garp, judging on what Ace and Luffy have here, we'll be having roast bear for dinner tonight. But don't even think of bringing any of them marines with you, 'cause I won't be giving them anything."

Luffy watched as Dadan left the clearing, then using his arms propelled himself into a nearby tree. Even from the top of the tree his caregivers form had already disappeared into the surrounding forest. He spent some time seeing how far he could climb up tree branches before they would snap, sending him bouncing back down the tree, where he would start again. Securing his knees around one of the lower branches Luffy swung down, letting his arms dangle towards the ground "So Gramps," he addressed Garp who was sitting at the base of the tree "how long are you going to be here this time?"

Garp considered this for a moment "Well, usually when I come to the East Blue it's to visit this place – just for holidays not for actual work. But this slave trade thing has become a bit of an issue in these areas recently the marines decided that they should intervene. Last week I was told by my higher-ups to send a few of my men to this area to see if they could put a stop to it."

"Wait, if you were just told to send men to this area then why did you have to come?" demanded Ace coming back over from where he had been skimming rocks.

"Well, as I said to the Fleet Admiral if I were to go along I could turn it into a holiday as well. Do two things at once – multitasking."

"Sounds like more of an excuse to just go on another holiday if you ask me," commented Ace.

"You know, that's exactly what Sengoku said before giving me a different assignment in North Blue" commented Garp.

"Then what happened to the North Blue mission?" questioned Luffy.

"Ehh, I just gave it to some of my men instead." Garp replied offhandedly.

"But then you're not even supposed to be here!" Ace accused.

"Ahh, don't worry about it. If Sengoku whinges about it I'll just tell him that I needed to come to the East Blue to visit my two beloved grandsons. I'm sure he'll be fine with that."

Ace was just about to comment on the validity of this excuse when voices sounded from across the river. "Ahh!" said Garp looking up "looks like they've arrived."

Ace followed Garp's line of sight spotting a few marines that had appeared on the road on the other side of the river. Last to appear was a man of similar height to Garp, who like Ace's gramps also donned one of the large marine coats. "Hey there!" called out the large marine.

"Akaname, took you long enough!" Garp addressed the marine.

"I think we did pretty well considering the lousy directions you gave us," Akaname retorted. "'We're in the forest – at the tree with the arrested bandits and there's some water?'" He sighed in exasperation "anyhow by some miracle we managed to find the place – though on the wrong side of the river," he noted.

"Well there's a bridge about a kilometre in that direction," Garp pointed downstream "unless of course you have other ideas?"

"'Can't really I feel like walking all that way when you're just there," Akaname replied pulling what appeared to be a thick photo album from his side bad "And I'd say the men here feel the same after hiking all this way. So," he continued, flicking through the album before drawing out a picture "I think this might be more appropriate" with that he proceeded to turn the picture so that it was facing towards the water and flicked the back side of it. Luffy watched on in amazement as from the small, postcard sized photo a number of row boats tumbled out, each growing into life sized boats as they splashed into the water. Akaname gave the card a final flick and a last row boat joined the other three.

"Woah!" Exclaimed Luffy as the boats travelled closer "How did he do that?!"

"Like you, Captain Akaname ate a devil fruit." Garp exclaimed "The Pull-Pull fruit, which allows its user to pull any inanimate object from a picture."

"So he can pull things from pictures and make them real?" questioned Luffy, "That's pretty weird."

"What, weirder than being able to stretch any part of your body as far as you want?" Ace teased as Akaname jumped off the boat into the now ankle deep water.

Ace watched as the men beached the boats and started to pull them up the bank so as to prevent them being swept away. "Don't worry about that men," said Akaname as he made his way up the bank "I'll just store them in here until we need them again" he pulled out the photograph he had before, showing Ace and Luffy a picture of a calm, empty river. Directing the face of the photo back towards the row boats he pinched the back of the picture which was pulled backwards slightly as though it were made of some kind of fabric instead of photographic paper. As he pulled the row boats slowly rose out of the water (causing some straggling marine to abandon ship), then one by one they each floated back towards the picture, shrinking in size as they did until they each entered the empty photo. "There we go," Akaname displayed the photo again – however, while Ace could still see the photo was at the same location it now had four boats in it – the same four that Ace had just seen crossing the river.

"That was so cool!" Luffy exclaimed bounding up and down "Can you bring anything out of pictures?"

Akaname laughed "No, unfortunately not. I cannot pull forth any living object, nor any object that was once a living creature for that matter – too bad, it'd certainly make the marines' job easier if I could simply reach into a wanted poster and pull out the criminal."

"Ahh, that would make the job too easy," interjected Garp "it'd get much too boring if you made the job that easy."

"Is that the only thing you can't pull through?" asked Ace.

"The thing needs to exist – so I can't pull through a picture of something that hasn't been invented yet. For example if someone were to draw some thin palm sized device that can access games and make calls and has some kind of touch screen – well, let's be realistic – I can't see one of them being invented any time soon and therefore I wouldn't be able to pull it through."

"Even so, that's pretty cool" said Luffy "It's so cool to finally meet another fruit user!"

"Right," agreed Ace "who'd have thought that you could actually gain a useful power from eating a devils fruit."

"Yea – Hey Ace you jerk, we'll see who's useful after I punch you in the face."

"Oh really?" Ace taunted "That'd be a first."

"Boys," growled Garp flexing his fist "if you start fighting in front of these marines you'll regret it."

"Now, now Garp." reasoned Akaname "Don't you think it might be a bit hypocritical of you to stop your boys from fighting by threatening the same thing yourself?"

"Bawawawa,I suppose you're right. Anyway, now you're here," Garp said, becoming more serious "I'll get you guys to round this lot up." he jabbed his thumb behind him to where the bound bandits were now stirring.

"Well looks like you've got the right guy," observed Akaname "have to admit I'm impressed that you managed to beat a group of bandits – I mean, not only were you outnumbered –your opponents are grown men and you're still kids. Though," Akaname considered for a moment "considering who your grandfather is maybe it's not too surprising after all."

"Yep," Garp boasted "have to say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as far as these two are concerned."

"And, I see you two are off to an early start."

"What do you mean by that?" questioned Ace.

"Well, catching the bad guys of course," replied Akaname as though it was the most obvious thing in the world "Your Grandfather has already told me how excited the two of you are about signing up with the marines once you're older."

"Shishishi" laughed Luffy, again swinging upside down from a tree branch "That's a pretty stupid thing of Gramps to say seeing how we're actually going to become pirates."

"Luffy!" yelled Garp pulling his grandson down from the tree and thumping him over the head. "What he meant to say," began Garp turning to face the other marine "is that he's going to, um, he's going to...-"

"Garp if you're going to lie about something, at least try to make it a believable lie." said Akaname sceptically. "Though I wouldn't let it worry you too much." he added. "Many children Luffy's age play around with the idea of becoming pirates. Before too long the discover the dark reality of this world and after that they drop any dreams of becoming one of those pirate scum. I'm sure the boys' will choose to become marines once they are old enough to enrol."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Garp said, his hand covering Luffy's mouth to prevent any contrary response. "So anyway," Garp continued, shifting the conversation "Here we have six of the Kutsu Mountain Bandits – including Kutsu himself," he added nodding towards the bandit leader.

"Six bandits?" questioned Akaname "I think you might want to check that Garp, there's only five here."

"Five?" Garp counted up the bandits "that's strange – I could have sworn there were six before."

"It's that ratty looking one," observed Ace "he must have gotten away when we weren't looking."

"A ratty looking bandit from the Kutsu group?" Asked one of the marine soldiers from by the river "Sir, I apologies for speaking out of turn, but could they mean this man?" he flipped through a small pile of wanted posters drawing out one from the middle.

"Yeah – that was him" Ace acknowledged, looking at the ratty man depicted in the poster. "Rachet." Ace read the poster "Second in charge of the Kutsu bandit group in Midway Forest, Dawn Island. 3 million Belli bounty."

"That's the average bounty for the East Blue," noted Garp "much lower than bounties in other oceans. Actually I think, judging by the release date on the poster the bounty's only recently been put in place. Doubt he's even aware of it yet. I'm surprised that he actually got away."

"I'll send some men out too see if they can find him," began Akaname "though we need to move on from this island by midday tomorrow, so I'm not too optimistic."

"Wait, so you're only here tonight Gramps?" asked Luffy.

"Yeah, just the night here and then we're splitting up to investigate other areas of the East Blue." Garp admitted hauling up one of the bandits. "Well, Akaname. If you're planning on taking them now you might want to get out those boats of yours again."

Ten minutes later all five bandits had been loaded on the row boats and the last of the marines were squeezing aboard. "We'll be off now Garp. We'll take the boats downstream this time," said Akaname "you're staying here?"

"Yeah, staying with the boys tonight."

"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow then sir." Akaname said before addressing the boys "Again, good job with today. Very impressive. Also if you ever find you need to, don't be afraid to come to me for help – I am a marine and therefore it is my duty to maintain justice in any way I can. It was great to meet you!" Akaname yelled as the boat he was in rounded a bend in the river "I look forward to seeing the two of you enrolling with the marines in a few years time!"

"Don't count on that!" Ace yelled back before being thumped by Garp.

"Would you quit that – especially in front of other marines."

The following morning Garp stood by the enterence of the Dadan family's home preparing to leave.

"So I don't suppose you know when you'll be back?" Dadan questioned as Garp grabbed the sole surviving piece of the morning's breakfast – an apple.

"With this investigation I expect to be in the East Blue for a while, so I'll likely be back in around a month," Garp replied biting the piece of fruit "Did you hear that boys?" he addressed his grandsons who were making their own preparations to visit the forest "you won't be seeing your favourite Grandfather for a month."

"Yep, ok Gramps" Ace replied dully, eyes not leaving the water bottle he was currently filling.

"Ungrateful brat," Garp muttered "that's not the correct response."

"Yeah Ace," Luffy commented "you're supposed to say 'Wahoo!'" he demonstrated this last part jumping up, punching the air above him.

"And that's even worse!" Garp said punching both boys on the top of their heads he continued "You're suppose to say 'Good bye Gramps, we're really going to miss you when you're gone!'" Garp shock his head leaving the house, Luffy, Ace, Dadan and some of the other bandits following.

Outside Garp had a final word with Dadan before turning to Ace and Luffy "Boys again I want to say that you did a good job yesterday – catching the Kutsu Bandits should give us further leads on bringing this illegal slave trade to a close."

"We only did it because they tried to steal-" Ace began.

However," Garp continued as though he hadn't been interrupted "I recommend that you at least try to take some care until the matter is resolved. It is possible that there could be more people involved in the trade on this island and things could turn nasty if they were to find out about your involvement in the arrest of the Kutsu group. In saying that though there might not be anyone left on this island who're involved, so you might not have anything to worry about (not that you would worry about it anyway)." Garp paused for a moment, letting the boys think about what he had said. "What I'm saying is just to be aware that there could be more people in the trade out there and try to be a little more careful if you go down anywhere like the Gray Terminal - Though that's probably an unrealistic ask." Garp said this last part more to himself than to the boys.

"Oh well, I'd better get going now," he said loudly, addressing the entire group again. "Boys, keep in mind what I said and I'll see the lot of you in about a month." With that Garp turned and soon disappeared down the forest path.


End file.
